Journal

It’s crazy how fast my Chinese elm (榆樹 in Chinese) is growing. Last month, I wired this branch of my Chinese elm right before two weeks of rainy days. When I went back and checked the wiring two weeks later, I found that the branch had already been embedded deeply into the bark 🙁 I[continue reading…]

Yamadori is a Japanese word meaning “collecting plants in the mountain”, and unquestionably, one of the things that bonsai enthusiasts often get tempted to do but end up restraining himself/herself from doing due to law restrictions, as well as the awareness of the need to preserve our nature. For this reason, Teacher Wong and some[continue reading…]

After reading my earlier post about my bonsai land, a friend, Irene, asked me why I covered up the soil with the black cloth again after all the plowing and pulverizing of the soil. I told her the black cloth is there to avoid weeds from growing. And here, with a few more photos, let[continue reading…]

I went to Hong Kong Flower Show earlier last month. While the flowers in the show were beautiful, they were not my main purpose for going to the show. It was the small bonsai exhibition in the Hong Kong Flower Show that had got my very interest. Check out this post for Bonsai Exhibition in[continue reading…]

On top of my bonsai rack, I have also rented a piece of land to grow more bonsai trees. Teacher Wong always says that one is truly a bonsai artist only when she knows how to cultivate a seedling or a cutting into a beautiful bonsai tree from ground zero. And the best way to[continue reading…]

I have dug out and potted three bonsai trees that I have bought earlier. When I bought these bonsai trees in the early winter, they were rooted in the ground. Since spring comes early in Hong Kong, now is just the right time to pot these bonsai trees. This is a Chinese Elm, and I[continue reading…]

Since I joined the bonsai club – Hong Kong Institute of Lingnan Penjing (香港嶺南盆景藝術學會) in July this year, I had been debating on whether or not I should rent a piece of land in the bonsai workshop to practice bonsai. It is a big commitment, for I know that once I have rented a spot[continue reading…]

During my research on the history of bonsai, I found a beautiful collection of bonsai postage stamps in the homepage of Phoenix Bonsai Society. While it is not surprising to find bonsai on postage stamps of China, Japan, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, there are some countries that I would have never expected bonsai on their[continue reading…]

A few days ago, with Teacher Wong and other lingnan penjing club members, we took hours of long rides to Yingde (英德) in Guangzhou, mainland China in the hope of obtaining some beautiful stones that can be used in our penjing (bonsai in Japanese). “Penjing” in Chinese literally means “landscape in a pot”. Their art[continue reading…]